Aleve, Do Your Stuff!

[Sporadicus]

I've been shoveling 20" of snow from my driveway for the past couple of hours, and my lower back is beginning to revolt. I just took two generic Aleve (naproxen), which I hope will prevent spasms of pain. I'm returning to the task shortly, after which I'll check in and let you know if I'm going to make it.

[matcom]

1. if the heart attack doesn't prevent you from more shoveling....

i don't know WHAT will

[sir_captain]

2. Hope it works

Naproxen is under investigation by the FDA now as it appears it may increase the incidence of heart attacks--so be careful. Might want to switch to ibuprofen tomorrow.

[Touchdown]

3. You only get heart attacks after 10 years of use.

...so I have 6 more to go. So there!:P

[sir_captain]

4. Heh...

Well, that's what the current data suggests--but there's clearly some stuff we don't understand yet. Personally, I'm going to be using other nsaids until a proper study has been done.

[Midlodemocrat]

5. Personally, I think the study was flawed

Apparently, some of those tested had Alzheimer's, which automatically raises your risk for heart disease/stroke, statistically at least. Although I am not taking any chances and have switched back to ibuprofen.

[sir_captain]

6. No doubt

better safe than sorry, though

this business with the cox-2 inhibitors certainly gives me pause about nsaids that aren't aspirin or ibuprofen

[NNadir]

7. Not really. Aspirin is a far better drug than ibuprofen, acetaminophen

Vioxx, Bextra, Celebrex and all of the other drugs "designed" to match Aspirin's success as a drug.

As a COX-2 and COX-1 inhibitor, Aspirin has the following indications: It is an antiflammatory, (Cox-2) an anti-coagulant (the COX-1 inhibition effect that Merck, Pfizer and other's sort to block), a pain killer (COX-2), and an anticarcinogen (COX-2). It was the clinical trials for anticarcinogenic properties Vioxx and Celebrex (again, trying to be "as good as" aspirin) that got Merck and Pfizer in trouble.

The apparent negative attribution for the COX-1 agonism (as opposed to antagonism) for naproxen is a surprise, since structurally Naproxen is a close structural analogue of aspirin, but medicinal chemists are aware that close structural analogues might have opposite (agonism and antagonist) effects. Indeed this is often exploited in drug design.

In retrospect, it's not entirely surprising that the modern COX-2 inhibitors like Vioxx and Celebrex were found to have heart effects exactly opposite to those of Aspirin. The COX-1 receptor is intimately involved, apparently, in the clotting effect. It's not always smart to mess with receptors.